What Is the Outcome When Schools Report Concern for a Child to the Norwegian Child Welfare and Protection Services?

Abstract

School teachers are a professional group that are responsible for a large proportion of reports concerning suspected child abuse and neglect. This study looks at which concerns are more often reported by schools and if these reports are more likely substantiated when the school is the reporter. The study was designed as a retrospective case-file study (N = 883). Results show that concerns about the child being exposed to physical abuse were notably more frequent in reports from schools compared to other reporters and were more often substantiated when the reports came from schools as opposed to other reporting agencies. The odds for substantiation of abuse were 6.4 times higher if an abuse concern had been raised in the report compared to when it had not. This effect was not significantly mediated by the school being the reporter. School reports contain to a lesser extent concern about risk factors within the family and local environment. This is not necessarily a shortcoming on behalf of schools but may represent conditions that a teacher has less knowledge of and that constitute a ‘blind spot’ for employees in the education sector. The child welfare service must take this into account when assessing school reports.